Remove the fruit-stalks and cut off the tops of the tomatoes (do not throw them away - you will need them). Carefully remove pulp from tomatoes (with a spoon) and powder them inside with a little salt and pepper. Chop mushrooms, onion and dill; add salt and sour cream or mayonnaise. Put this mixture inside the tomatoes and cover them with the cut-off tops. In the same way you can stuff tomatoes with chopped herring, eggs, cheese and garlic and other products to your taste.

Fish in Aspic

1 kg sturgeon fish
1 1/2 L water
20 g gelatin
1 parsley root
1 celeriac
1 carrot
1 bay leaf
salt to taste

Boil the prepared steaks of fish fillet for 10-15 min till ready, let them cool in the broth and then leave them on a siege to dry.

Prepare the jelly: add the fish scraps (head, bones, tail, fins and skin) to the broth and boil for 1- 11/2 hour with the roots, spices and salt. Then strain the broth through a sieve, add pre-soaked gelatin (20 g gelatin for 1 kg of fish scraps) and warm it till the gelatin dissolves.

Lighten the broth: mix one raw egg with 100 g of the warm broth and 25 g vinegar and pour it all into the hot broth. Simmer the broth and strain it through a linen cloth. Put the fish steaks in plates, decorate with pieces of boiled carrot, lemon, parsley, and green peas, fastening the decorations with some jell and freeze.

When the jelly freezes, pour the rest of the broth into the plates and cool in the fridge.

Serve with horseradish sauce and vinegar.

Radish in Sour Cream

3-4 middle-sized radishes
4-5 Tbsp sour cream
Green or bulb onion and salt to taste

Peel radish, soak in salted water for 15-20 minutes. Grate the radish and mix it with finely chopped onion, sour cream and salt. You can also add some grated carrots. Put the radish into a salad bowl and decorate with greens.

Eggs with Caviar Filling

Hard-boiled eggs, red and soft caviar, butter, green parsley and dill.

Boil the eggs, let them cool, unshell and cut them in half lengthwise. Remove the yolks. Fill the halves of each egg with caviar and put frothy butter around the caviar in the shape of small flowers using a cornet with a carved pipe. Decorate the serving with greens and flowers made of vegetables (fresh or pickled tomatoes and cucumbers). The best hors-d'oeuvre to serve with vodka!

Mushrooms in sour cream

500 g fresh or pickled mushrooms
1/2 glass of sour cream
25 g cheese
1 tbsp flour
2 tbsp oil

Peel the skin off the mushrooms and scald them with boiling water. Drain them, slice, salt and fry in oil. Before taking them out of the pan add a teaspoonful of flour, and sour cream and stew the mixture. Put grated cheese over the mushrooms and bake in the oven for 5 min. Serve with parsley or dill. Mushrooms may be tinned ones. Remove the pickle, and wash, slice and fry the mushrooms. Cook in the same way as fresh mushrooms.